Kenneth M Lipp's Posts - Atheist Nexus2015-03-04T00:47:03ZKenneth M Lipphttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/KennethMLipphttp://api.ning.com/files/QbYQvcivg-rqR2Na1R4I4xlggkfF-VNy*XEoCywUw8Jjobg64miCLYNqdj-4CiH*dlsfaUVwYda8ecJMphXdxcVt*HLaL0Gq/Snapshot_20100730_25.jpg?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.atheistnexus.org/profiles/blog/feed?user=1zavprla5m67t&xn_auth=no"Spontaneous Evolution" Maybe one day, but still just not real. More not science.tag:www.atheistnexus.org,2010-11-28:2182797:BlogPost:10389462010-11-28T08:55:23.000ZKenneth M Lipphttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/KennethMLipp
I was writing and playing with picasa web albums some, and came across the site for Dr. Bruce Lipton's latest book, Spontaneous Evolution. I also wrote these words on this cat picture. You can do unicorn stickers and stuff too.<br />
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Something is certainy ridiculous. Read on:<br />
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I was writing and playing with picasa web albums some, and came across the site for Dr. Bruce Lipton's latest book, Spontaneous Evolution. I also wrote these words on this cat picture. You can do unicorn stickers and stuff too.<br />
<br />
Something is certainy ridiculous. Read on:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TPH2QSJkvQI/AAAAAAAACwc/mY1k3zjQW58/s1600/schrodingers-lolcat1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="337" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TPH2QSJkvQI/AAAAAAAACwc/mY1k3zjQW58/s400/schrodingers-lolcat1.jpg" width="400"/></a></div>
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From the website of Dr. Bruce Lipton, advertising his new book.<br />
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<blockquote><strong>Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here</strong>
<strong>by Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D., Steve Bhaerman</strong></blockquote>
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<blockquote><em>We’ve all heard stories of people who’ve experienced seemingly miraculous recoveries from illness, but can the same thing happen for our world? According to pioneering biologist Bruce H. Lipton, it’s not only possible, it’s already occurring.</em></blockquote>
<blockquote><em>In Spontaneous Evolution, this world-renowned expert in the emerging science of epigenetics reveals how our changing understanding of biology will help us navigate this turbulent period in our planet’s history and how each of us can participate in this global shift</em></blockquote>
<blockquote><em>By questioning the old beliefs that got us to where we are today and keep us stuck in the status quo, we can trigger the spontaneous evolution of our species that will usher in a brighter future.</em></blockquote>
It begins like a fable, with an advertisement wedged at the end. The classic self-help mantra, I suppose. From “I’m ok, you’re ok” to “breaking the bonds of biology,” there have been slogans, some more propagandist, some less, as long as there has been straight to consumer marketing of unreviewed—heavy on the quotation marks—“science.”<br />
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(I will not mention snake-oil, or use the word carpet-bagger. That would be a shameful ad hominem)<br />
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We now have enough information to know that we are under threat of cataclysm, and we’ve been invited to a revelation.<br />
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<blockquote><em>By questioning the old beliefs that got us to where we are today and keep us stuck in the status quo, we can trigger the spontaneous evolution of our species that will usher in a brighter future.</em></blockquote>
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Well. This is just a lie. But it’s also not a questioning of the status quo. It’s really not that emotional, it isn’t supposed to be. I love it for the moments of “finally the nerds win.” When they send a signal that navigates a satellite with a nudge of acceleration-from a distance of 8.8 AU (around 800,000,000 miles), it’s fine if they crack open some bubbly and all kiss. The “family portrait” of our inner solar system that gave Sagan his pale blue dot , which we attained in the act of utilising the gravity of Saturn to change the trajectory of the craft to it’s course through the distant gas giant twins and the has-been and sometime superlative outlander, to finally overtake Pioneer 1 in 1998 (at around 66. AU’s distance.) is cause for celebration.<br />
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It’s a lie because the causation is never included, he never follows through, Dr. Lipton fails to discuss it. The expanded description is epically large for its actual content.<br />
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<blockquote><em>Infused with intelligence and wit, Spontaneous Evolution is an insightful, playful, and ultimately hopeful look at the unfolding destiny of our species-and how you can play an active role in birthing the evolution of humanity.</em>
</blockquote>
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<blockquote><em>Dr. Bruce Lipton is an internationally recognized leader in bridging science and spirit. He has been a guest speaker on hundreds of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national and international conferences.</em>
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<blockquote><em>Dr. Lipton began his scientific career as a cell biologist. He received his Ph.D. Degree from the University of Virginia at Charlottesville before joining the Department of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine in 1973. Dr. Lipton’s research on muscular dystrophy, studies employing cloned human stem cells, focused upon the molecular mechanisms controlling cell behavior. An experimental tissue transplantation technique developed by Dr. Lipton and colleague Dr. Ed Schultz and published in the journal Science was subsequently employed as a novel form of human genetic engineering.</em>
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<blockquote><em>In 1982, Dr. Lipton began examining the principles of quantum physics and how they might be integrated into his understanding of the cell’s information processing systems. He produced breakthrough studies on the cell membrane, which revealed that this outer layer of the cell was an organic homologue of a computer chip, the cell’s equivalent of a brain. His research at Stanford University’s School of Medicine, between 1987 and 1992, revealed that the environment, operating though the membrane, controlled the behavior and physiology of the cell, turning genes on and off. His discoveries, which ran counter to the established scientific view that life is controlled by the genes, presaged one of today’s most important fields of study, the science of epigenetics. Two major scientific publications derived from these studies defined the molecular pathways connecting the mind and body. Many subsequent papers by other researchers have since validated his concepts and ideas.</em>
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<blockquote><em>Dr. Lipton’s novel scientific approach transformed his personal life as well. His deepened understanding of cell biology highlighted the mechanisms by which the mind controls bodily functions, and implied the existence of an immortal spirit. He applied this science to his personal biology, and discovered that his physical well-being improved, and the quality and character of his daily life was greatly enhanced.</em></blockquote>
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<blockquote><em>Dr. Lipton has taken his award-winning medical school lectures to the public and is currently a sought after keynote speaker and workshop presenter. He lectures to conventional and complementary medical professionals and lay audiences about leading-edge science and how it dovetails with mind-body medicine and spiritual principles. He has been heartened by anecdotal reports from hundreds of former audience members who have improved their spiritual, physical and mental well being by applying the principles he discusses in his lectures. He is regarded as one of the leading voices of the new biology. Dr Lipton’s work summarizing his findings, entitled The Biology of Belief.</em></blockquote>
It is a list of qualifications, and it is not shabby in that regard (which makes it all the more tragic--the man must know what what he is doing). He’s not an MD, but he has an impressive resume of involvement with innovation and legitimate academic employment with no record of “heresy” therein (notice it’s only a religious bent that has one condemning SPEECH as evil). However, he is practicing medicine, without a license. He is telling people that they can be cured by their will of pernicious pathologies. He discredits himslef by claiming the title of ferryman, with the manipulative conceit of "bridging science and spirit." There is no such field.<br />
There is philosophical language for science, to be sure, but this is a theology. It's a good thing biology has far fewer dramatically metaphoric purveyors than physics.<br />
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I first encountered him when good friend <a>Tauriq Moosa</a>, writer for <a href="http://www.3quarksdaily.com/">3 Quarks Daily</a> and other widely read rational humanist blogs, shared aan article with me concerning the publication in a Swedish journal of the work of two slightly less eschatological researchers in the field of epigenetics. In the insuing research on the pop perception of this budding science, I encountered Lipton. I was appalled, and addressed the scientific impotence of his claims:<br />
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<blockquote><em>Dr. Lipton describes in the opening of Where Mind and Matter Meet three primary mistakes that his “New Edge” approach to biology and health can correct towards a healthier, smilier future: the retention of a Newtonian concept of physics, adherence to a gene determined expression of phenotype, and the Darwinian paradigm as a whole in favor of Lamarck.</em></blockquote>
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</em><br />
<blockquote><em>First, let us contend with those three “mistakes,” starting with the Newtonian anachronism. The cry of quantum revolution, liberation a la Heisenberg and Copenhagen, was an inane and abrasive bugling to my ears long before I heard it invoked here by Lipton.</em></blockquote>
The reality is, Dr. Lipton never involves quantum physics by invoking more than its name as authority, as with his allusive discussion of epigenetics. He mentions the very complex and long known functions of formative genetics such as methylation and chromatin formation. We are learning much more, and seeing with more clarity the immense influence, of extra- or epigenetic influences in many processes, but we have not found an "immortal soul," we shall not with well wishes untie the Gordian coil.<br />
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again, from my earlier post<br />
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<blockquote><em>At conception the human is little more than DNA. A zygote acquires all of its formative physical material from without, first through the placenta and after birth through the consumption of resources, mostly in food or drink, but we are increasingly seeing the effect on our systems which our dispositions influence. Oxytocin, serotonin, adrenal hormones, and all manner of endocrine hormones in interplay with our emotional affect are being described with more and more detail, to the level of a dendrite. A continual augmentation of our knowledge in this regard will certainly expand our ability to treat and prevent human disease, and all ethical investigation of both epigenetic and genetic influence ought to be encouraged</em></blockquote>
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I’m not arguing against the fervent investigation of any new or newly realized modality of treatment.<br />
But Dr. Lipton, qualified scientist that I believe he is, is not an ethical practicioner unethical. He is not a rebel against the “status quo,” he is an opportunist. At $25 dollars a book, it pays to promise much, and deliver little. Why would the greater body of science not wish to prophet, I mean profit, by this.<br />
You may buy the book if you wish, but there are good reasons we don’t allow people to practice medicine without a license.<br />
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If you are a researcher, practicioner, journalist, or avid non-professional interested in improving science and denouncing charlatans, the brilliant Emma (<a href="http://emma-sparknotes.blogspot.com/">Neurilemma</a>) and brilliant Barrett Brown may have some thing for you. For more information on the Science Journalism Improvement Project, email <a href="mailto:emilieduchatulet8@gmail.com">Emma</a> or <a href="mailto:barrettbrown@gmail.com">Barret</a> with a short list of interests. Be glad ya did.<br />
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KennethIslamophobia, a misnomertag:www.atheistnexus.org,2010-11-28:2182797:BlogPost:10388752010-11-28T08:51:32.000ZKenneth M Lipphttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/KennethMLipp
<div class="separator" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TM-q2vDbyMI/AAAAAAAACFI/2Qx3VBw4Wfw/s1600/brainwashing-6.jpg" style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: left; CLEAR: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em; cssfloat: left"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TM-q2vDbyMI/AAAAAAAACFI/2Qx3VBw4Wfw/s320/brainwashing-6.jpg" width="320"></img></a></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Draw a map of the…</span></span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Draw a map of the brain when fear and anxiety are involved, and the amygdala -- the brain's almond-shaped center for panic and fight-or-flight responses -- looms large.</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Fear is an adaptive response, essential to the survival of many species. This behavioural adaptation may be innate but can also be a consequence of conditioning, during the course of which an animal learns that a particular stimulus precedes an unpleasant event. There is a large amount of data indicating that the amygdale is strongly involved during the learning of "conditioned" fear. Shown to play a key role in the processsing of emotions, the amygdala forms part of the limbic system.</span></span></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">In humans and other animals, this subcortical brain structure is linked to both fear responses and pleasure. Its size is positively correlated with aggressive behavior across species. Research shows that specific phobias express in this region of the limbic system. A phobia is a fear which is caused by a specific object or situation. The fear may be by the actual presence of, or by, the anticipation of the presence of that object or situation. Anxiety, triggered by the fear, may approach the intensity of panic.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; CLEAR: right; cssfloat: right" href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/amygdala.jpg"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><img border="0" src="http://scienceblogs.com/neurotopia/amygdala.jpg" width="320" height="214"/></span></a></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">In cognitive psychology, the criteria for a diagnosis of specific phobia involves the following differential:</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">· </span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">The patient experiences a strong, persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable. It is cued by a specific object or situation that is either present or anticipated.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">· </span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">The phobic stimulus almost always immediately provokes an anxiety response, which may be either a panic attack or symptoms of anxiety that do not meet criteria for a panic attack.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">· </span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The fear is unreasonable or out of proportion, and the patient realizes this.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">· </span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The patient either avoids the phobic stimulus or endures it with severe anxiety or distress.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">· </span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Patient is under the age of 18, but must have had the symptoms for 6 months or longer.</span></span></div>
<div style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt 40.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">· </span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">Either there is marked distress about this fear or it markedly interferes with the patient's usual routines or social, job or personal functioning.</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The term Islamophobia dates back to the late 1980s, but came into prolific usage after the</span> <a title="September 11, 2001 attacks" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11,_2001_attacks"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">September 11, 2001 attacks</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">in the United States, to refer to types of political dialogue that appeared prejudicially resistant to “</span><a title="Pro-Islamic" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pro-Islamic"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">pro-Islamic</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">argument."</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Professor Anne Sophie Roald writes that steps were taken toward official acceptance of the term in January 2001 at the "Stockholm International Forum on Combating Intolerance", where Islamophobia was recognized as a form of intolerance alongside</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><a title="Xenophobia" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Xenophobia</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">and</span> <a title="Antisemitism" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Antisemitism</span></span></a><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">.</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">In 1997, the British</span> <a title="Runnymede Trust" href="http://www.runnymedetrust.org/publications/17/32.html"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Runnymede Trust</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">defined Islamophobia as the "dread or hatred of Islam and therefore, to the fear and dislike of all Muslims," stating that it also refers to the practice of</span> <a title="Discrimination" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">discriminating</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">against Muslims by excluding them from the economic, social, and public life of the nation. It purports to include the perception that “Islam has no values in common with other cultures, is inferior to the West and is a violent</span> <a title="Political ideology" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_ideology"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">political ideology</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">rather than a</span> <a title="Religion" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">religion</span></span></a><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">.” The trust’s website boasts the accomplishment-</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoQuote"><em><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'">“Through the work of the Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, Runnymede achieved tangible response from policy makers and the general public. For example, the Government approved the first state funding for specifically Muslim schools in late 1997, and there has been some improvement in media portrayals of Islam. The UK National Census in 2001 contained a question on religion.”</span></span></em></div>
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<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Ignoring for a moment the very dubious success of having isolated Muslims in order to accommodate polity, a quick look at the text of this supposedly victimized orthodoxy is in order. We shall assume that Muslims hold the words of the Qu’uran to be the word and command of their god, Allah, for them to follow of their intrinsic merit by virtue of their source.</span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span class="MsoIntenseEmphasis"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">"...now that a Book confirming their own has come to them from God, they deny it...they reply: 'We believe in what was revealed to us.' But they deny what has since been revealed, although it is truth...Say: 'Whoever is an enemy of Gabriel' (who has by God's grace revealed to you [Muhammad] the Koran as a guide...confirming previous scriptures)..will surely find that God is the enemy of the unbelievers.'...And now that an apostle has come to them from God confirming their own Scriptures, some of those to whom the Scriptures were given cast off the Book of God behind their backs...The unbelievers among the People of the Book, and the pagans, resent that any blessings should have been sent down to you from your Lord. " (Surah 2:88-, 98-, 103-)</span></span> </span></em></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><em>"The only true faith in God's sight is Islam." (Surah 3:19)</em> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoIntenseEmphasis"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: large">And what is this pristine and invulnerable divine codification?</span></span></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"><span class="MsoIntenseEmphasis"><span style="FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: large">The Qu’uran proscribes:</span></span></span><span class="MsoIntenseEmphasis"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><br/><br/><em><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"Slay them wherever you find them...Idolatry is worse than carnage...Fight against them until idolatry is no more and God's religion reigns supreme." (Surah 2:190-) <br/><br/>"Fighting is obligatory for you, much as you dislike it." (Surah 2:216)</span></em></span></span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><br/></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><i><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">"Seek out your enemies relentlessly." (Surah 4:103-)</span></i> </span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people...They desire nothing but your ruin....You believe in the entire Book...When they meet you they say: 'We, too, are believers.' But when alone, they bite their finger-tips with rage." (Surah 3:118, 119)</span></span></i> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/></span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><i><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">"If you should die or be slain in the cause of God, His forgiveness and His mercy would surely be better than all the riches..." (Surah 3:156-)</span></i> </span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><i>"Believers, take neither Jews nor Christians for your friends." (Surah 5:51)</i><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/></span></span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><i><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'">"Men are tempted [in this life] by the lure of women...far better is the return of God. Say: 'Shall I tell you of better things than these, with which the righteous shall be rewarded by their Lord? Theirs shall be gardens watered by running streams, where they shall dwell for ever: wives of perfect chastity..." (Surah 3:14, 15)</span></i> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><i>"Try as you may, you cannot treat all your wives impartially." (Surah 4:126-)</i> <br/><br/><br/><i>“Believers, when you encounter the infidels on the march, do not turn your backs to them in flight. If anyone on that day turns his back to them, except it be for tactical reasons...he shall incur the wrath of God and Hell shall be his home..." (Surah 8:12-)</i><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/><br style="mso-special-character: line-break"/></span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"Make war on them until idolatry shall cease and God's religion shall reign supreme." (Surah 8:36-)</span></span></i> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><br/><i>"If you fear treachery from any of your allies, you may fairly retaliate by breaking off your treaty with them." (Surah 8:51-)</i> <br/><br/><i>"...make war on the leaders of unbelief...Make war on them: God will chastise them at your hands and humble them. He will grant you victory over them..." (Surah 9:12-)</i></span> <i><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"Fight against such as those to whom the Scriptures were given [Jews and Christians]...until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued." (Surah 9:27-)</span></i> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><br/><br/><i>"If you do not fight, He will punish you sternly, and replace you by other men." (Surah 9:37-)</i> <br/><br/><i>"Prophet make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. Hell shall be their home." (Surah 9:73)</i> <br/><br/><i>"Believers, make war on the infidels who dwell around you. Deal firmly with them." (Surah 9:121-)</i> <br/><br/><i>"Muhammad is God's apostle. Those who follow him are ruthless to the unbelievers but merciful to one another." (Surah 48:</i><br/><br/><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic">Well, this hardly sounds the attitude that would lead one to accommodate your ideological “foes” with a school of their own, so they can be free from pestering!</span></span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-style: italic">While I most definitely do not support the discrimination, legal or social, of any person on the basis of their ethnicity or race, or place of origin, the protective attitudes of many regarding Islam fall well short of the criteria for a phobia.</span><span class="messagebody2"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN">The argument that the practices of honor killing, death for apostasy, female genital mutilation, and the overall subjugation of women that occurs in Islamic nations and within Muslim enclaves is a matter of "cultural" tradition is meaningless. Religious customs help make up the culture. Holy writ that promotes hate will spawn hate in its followers.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt; BACKGROUND: white" class="MsoNormal"><span class="messagebody2"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Does fear of the above sound irrational to you?</span></span></span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN" lang="EN" xml:lang="EN"><br/><br/><span class="messagebody2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">I am not singling out Islam to distinguish it from other religions in its nature--it is, like all supernatural dogma, a mental virus. This virus has some frightening particulars, and the pernicious nature of religious moralism combined with the singularly brutal and regressive orthodoxy of this faith make it a perfect storm, a tempest of deranged behaviour and social attitudes. These traditions incubate in isolation, protected from the demands of society's cultural selection. And some think it wise to mandate its enclavement among children, the most vulnerable to cognitive infection?</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Islam is an ideology. Rejection of an ideology is not, excecpt as ad hominem, classified as phobia. To call the opponents of an ideology phobic is a fallacy. All ideologies have their critics and opponents but we do not hear Christians calling the critics of Christianity Christianophobe, communists calling their critics communitophobe or Hindus calling theirs hinduphobe. The term "Islamophobia" is both technically and logically incorrect and misleading. Nor do we refer to the Allies as Fasciphobes, Naziphobes, or Nippophobes. This is an attack on the source of criticism, resulting from a lack of ammunition to attack the critique itself.</span></div>
<br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">On the whole, humans start establishing control over their offspring’s behavior by imposing fear as soon as, in some ways before, their progeny can comprehend.</span> <a href="http://cultureisaweapon.blogspot.com/2010/11/fear-and-follow-narrative-history-of.html"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">There is a reaction to fear</span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">that could be summed up as reflex (call it “</span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight-or-flight_response"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Fight or Flight</span></a><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">”).</span> <br/><div class="item-body"><div><div class="item-body"><div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">A broad secular education can undermine dogmatic religious faith. Knowing this, many Muslims clerics will mandate their followers to isolate their children intellectually through homeschooling or enrolling them in religious private schools and Muslim colleges. Such children can reach adulthood without ever being challenged to think critically about their religious or political beliefs. These children will have very little chance of breaking free of the bonds of their neolithic enculturation. The</span> <a title="Runnymede Trust" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runnymede_Trust"><span style="COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Runnymede Trust</span></span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">has done these children and indeed all of Britain a disservice.</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Stop saying Islamophobe regarding those who don't wish to accomodate a brutal regression, the neologism "Islamophobia" implies that Islam is not dangerous and the fear of it is irrational.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">This claim is not supported rhetorically sound or agreed upon clinically.</span> <a href="http://emma-sparknotes.blogspot.com/2010/11/i-am-intellectually-opposed-to-islam.html"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">There are many logical arguments to posit the claim that Islam is dangerous.</span></a> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large">(click the link to read Neurilemma's brilliant and incisive article on the issue) <em>Irrespective of whether the critics of Islam are right about Islam's danger, the term“phobic” implies that criticism has been already refuted and the irrationality of fear of Islamic threat has been established, that the apprehension is not a rational reaction but a mental disorder, a priori.</em></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">All ideologies have opponents. It is myopic and arrogant, to say the least, for criticism of any ideology to be characterized as phobia.</span></div>
<div><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">As Russell Blackford said in his recent article <em><a href="http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2010/11/more-on-islamophobia-question.html">More on the Islamophobia question:</a></em></span> <br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"Even where racism has been fueled by doctrinal disagreements, as with Christian anti-Semitism, it is possible to distinguish between doctrinal disagreement and racial hatred. Admittedly, some dislike of Islam, or impatience with Muslims and their spiritual leaders, may have a quasi-racist character, grounded in parochialism and xenophobia, and perhaps a dislike of Arabs in particular. But Islam also contains ideas, and in a liberal democracy these are fair targets for criticism or repudiation."</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Kenneth</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">As a post script, I'd like to quote Miss Neurilemma:</span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">"</span> <br/><div><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit; FONT-SIZE: large" class="Apple-style-span">And another thing, this whole bit about ooh "we mustn't criticise Islam because its, like you know, its a religion and we must respect that and we must show religious tolerance because... " Yes? "Well because, its a religion and somebody once said its just not nice to question someones beliefs." Really, that's the reason? "Yes, that's the reason. " Well, no, rhetorical device, no, that's a load of bull, actually. Why must I stop my critical thinking faculties at the door of the church /mosque /synagogue/ temple?</span></div>
<div><span style="COLOR: #333333" class="Apple-style-span"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span"><br/></span></span></div>
<div><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">The answer is I shouldn't. But it seems some people think I should. People who do not think about things very deeply conflate racism with religion and are so scared that they will be called racist that they abandon their critical thinking abilities, if they have any, take what is written in the Press as the</span><span style="DISPLAY: inline" class="text_exposed_show"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">ir</span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">*bible*, no pun intended and follow the herd. So if the BBC says there is such a concept as</span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">Islamophobia</span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">, weak minded people will immediately switch off their brains, sink into the comfort zone of being told what to think and stop</span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">analys</span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">ing</span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit" class="Apple-style-span">exactly what constitutes Islam, over and above its claim to be the *uncreated word of *God* (as if that wasn't enough meat to get our teeth into right there, the *uncreated word of *God*, really?)"</span></span></span></div>
<div><span style="DISPLAY: inline" class="text_exposed_show"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit; FONT-SIZE: large" class="Apple-style-span">Thank you, Emma-emma-emma.</span></span></div>
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<br/>The first in a three part series on epigenetics, transhumanism, and future human evolution.tag:www.atheistnexus.org,2010-11-11:2182797:BlogPost:10253582010-11-11T10:08:49.000ZKenneth M Lipphttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/KennethMLipp
<p><br></br>Epigenetics is a relative infant field of scientific study, but has lately led to some very bold declarations about the future of biomedical research and therapy. The discovery of specific links between extra-genetic components puts new talking points at the disposal of transhumanists and champions of “conscious evolution” like Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief and Spontaneous Evolution, to help bolster claims that we are on the brink of a “New Biology” in which we can…</p>
<p><br/>Epigenetics is a relative infant field of scientific study, but has lately led to some very bold declarations about the future of biomedical research and therapy. The discovery of specific links between extra-genetic components puts new talking points at the disposal of transhumanists and champions of “conscious evolution” like Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of The Biology of Belief and Spontaneous Evolution, to help bolster claims that we are on the brink of a “New Biology” in which we can learn to control our genes through mental manipulation and “go from victim to master.” <br/></p>
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title">Messianic Biology: Lipton's Teleological Absurdity</h3>
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<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The first in a three part series on epigenetics, transhumanism, and future human evolution.</span></div>
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<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><strong><span style="FONT-SIZE: x-large">Dr. Bruce Lipton: The Biology of Belief</span></strong></div>
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<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><strong>Epigenetics</strong> is a relative infant field of scientific study, but has lately led to some very bold declarations about the future of biomedical research and therapy. The discovery of specific links between extra-genetic components puts new talking points at the disposal of transhumanists and champions of “conscious evolution” like Dr. Bruce Lipton, author of <em>The Biology of Belief</em> and <em>Spontaneous Evolution</em>, to help bolster claims that we are on the brink of a “New Biology” in which we can learn to control our genes through mental manipulation and “go from victim to master.”</span></div>
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<tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="tr-caption"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">Histone acts to give DNA the specific</span><br/> <span style="FONT-SIZE: small">coil structure unique between types of cells</span></td>
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﻿﻿﻿ <br/><div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Now, by no means am I discounting the significance of research describing the functions of histone, methylation, and other non-genetic influences on biological expression. Chromatin structuring is a long established and vital process in differentiation of genetic expression between cells, and without methylation an embryo will not grow into a baby. There are numerous enzymes such as telomerase that are vital to aging and replication processes—and the scientific and medical fields have embraced these discoveries as tools for improving quality of life.</span></div>
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<span style="FONT-SIZE: large">However, Dr. Lipton’s contention is that humans can wrest control of these mechanisms through the exertion of our consciousness. Perception, he says, (and which he equivocates as synonymous with Belief) is the determining influence on our biological well-being.</span><br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The connection between cognition and biochemistry is not in dispute—we are biological entities. But there is no evidence that through recognition of the fact we can somehow orchestrate our molecular processes.</span><br/><table style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; FLOAT: left; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" class="tr-caption-container" cellspacing="0">
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<br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Dr. Lipton describes in the opening of <em>Where Mind and Matter Meet</em> three primary mistakes that his “New Edge” approach to biology and health can correct towards a healthier, smilier future: the retention of a Newtonian concept of physics, adherence to a gene determined expression of phenotype, and the Darwinian paradigm as a whole in favor of Lamarck.</span><br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><embed allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="false"></embed>
</span><br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">First, let us contend with those three “mistakes,” starting with the Newtonian anachronism. The cry of quantum revolution, liberation a la Heisenberg and Copenhagen, was an inane and abrasive bugling to my ears long before I heard it invoked here by Lipton. I am not a physicist, but I can see no way in which the uncertainty of quantum position and dependence on observation puts determination is the hands of an observer, who while directly influencing through his perception the state of a particle does not determine that state. The double-slit experiment was itself an accident.</span> <br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Schrödinger’s cat is not poisoned or saved by a knowing choice. Rather, outside the box,</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">a quantum event (e. g., passage/not passage of a single photon through a half-silvered mirror) is causally connected to the release of the poison inside the box. Since the photon is a quantum object in a superposition state, it both passes and does not pass through the mirror. Hence the poison is both triggered and not triggered. Therefore, by quantum logic, the cat must be both dead and alive until the box is opened and the cat observed. (Analogous to quantum logic, superposition of mental events is commonplace, further suggesting that the mind is a quantum system. Cognitively, we are simultaneously prepared for the cat being alive and prepared for the cat being dead until we open the box.)</span><br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">At the moment the box is opened, the system chooses either to reveal a dead cat or a live cat. In any case, I don’t think these new physics principles are applicable on as large a scale as we are considering (hence "quanta...").</span><br/><br/><table style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto" class="tr-caption-container" cellspacing="0" align="center">
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<br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Genetic determination and the Lamarckian idiocy can be dealt with at once. I would like to know to whom Lipton ascribes his claim about the current perspective that we are shackled to a biological destiny from birth. I don’t know a single geneticist or biologist who teaches this, and I have never personally been under such an impression. Scholars in evolutionary dynamics use algorithms of incredible complexity, and never with the intention of creating a stipulative conclusion, as the environmental factors can never fully predicted. This is the hallmark promise of the transhumanist prophet:</span> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><em>The glorious dissolution of the old corporeal bonds.</em></span> <br/><br/><table style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN-LEFT: auto; MARGIN-RIGHT: auto" class="tr-caption-container" cellspacing="0" align="center">
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<tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="tr-caption"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">"Humanity +" is a transhumanist organisation</span><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">which promotes cryogenics as well as conscious evolution</span> <br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">toward a "better human." A human plus, I presume (plus what?)</span></td>
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<br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">As for Lamarck, his two main positions on life evolution were the environment gives rise to changes in animals (blindness in moles is the famous example. The second principle was that life was structured in an orderly manner and that many different parts of all bodies make it possible for the organic movements of animals. The primary distinction between Lamarck’s theory and Darwin’s is the element of directed change. Lamarck believed that mutations (this is what the changes amount to, though he would not have used the word) occurred according to a predetermined influence which he called a “complexifying force,” which was then honed by an adaptive force. It is possible that this was a matter of the limitations of the man’s time. We now understand mutations as occurring almost exclusively during sexual reproduction by the random division and combination of parental DNA. An irony for Dr. Lipton is that Lamarck’s preformationism would in fact take the amino reins even further from his grasp.</span><br/><br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">At conception the human is little more than DNA. A zygote acquires all of its formative physical material from without, first through the placenta and after birth through the consumption of resources, mostly in food or drink, but we are increasingly seeing the effect on our systems which our dispositions influence. Oxytocin, serotonin, adrenal hormones, and all manner of endocrine hormones in interplay with our emotional affect are being described with more and more detail, to the level of a dendrite. A continual augmentation of our knowledge in this regard will certainly expand our ability to treat and prevent human disease, and all ethical investigation of both epigenetic and genetic influence ought to be encouraged.</span><br/><br/><br/><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrxf1MZAuI/AAAAAAAACZM/ZKVCu_hO1XU/s1600/800px-Complete_neuron_cell_diagram_en_svg.png"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrxf1MZAuI/AAAAAAAACZM/ZKVCu_hO1XU/s400/800px-Complete_neuron_cell_diagram_en_svg.png" width="400" height="290"/></a></div>
<br/><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">But under any rational scrutiny the claims that humans are able and poised for imminent emancipation from illness and pain by using the mind as an eject button are revealed as teleological fantasies. Our mind is our brain, which for most is kept in the skull, and, as the song goes, it’s all connected. Ignoring the imprecision of manipulating neurotransmitters through mood, how is it that we are expected to begin to “choose” our emotional reactions? The depressed or anxious surely don’t choose those fates for themselves. This is question-begging at its worst, wrapped in a tabernacle of molecular detail. Want to stop feeling sad or ill? It’s simple: stop it.</span> <br/><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrzr2RPGeI/AAAAAAAACZc/3HtyOR7SI_U/s1600/circ.jpg"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrzr2RPGeI/AAAAAAAACZc/3HtyOR7SI_U/s200/circ.jpg" width="200" height="187"/></a></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><a style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 1em; FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; CLEAR: right; cssfloat: right" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrz9McRhWI/AAAAAAAACZg/ld9We1krekA/s1600/truthfreedom.png"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CH-eC2VtxfM/TNrz9McRhWI/AAAAAAAACZg/ld9We1krekA/s1600/truthfreedom.png"/></a><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">The subterfuge would be laughable if poor, ill and desperate people weren’t exposed to and fooled by such pseudo-scientific, messianic ideology.</span></div>
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<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">We are not in a cage. If we were, the cavalier whom Dr. Lipton has promised will come to your aid would in fact be incarcerated in the same cell. We are simply in a body, in a world, and our means of liberation is its expansion through our honest inquiry and exploration.</span></div>
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<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">Kenneth</span></div>
<div style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none"><em><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”</span></em><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><br/></span></div>
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<p><a href="http://cultureisaweapon.blogspot.com/2010/11/messianic-biology-liptons-teleological.html">http://cultureisaweapon.blogspot.com/2010/11/messianic-biology-liptons-teleological.html</a></p>http://scarredparabola.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_10.htmltag:www.atheistnexus.org,2010-10-05:2182797:BlogPost:9939122010-10-05T02:22:23.000ZKenneth M Lipphttp://www.atheistnexus.org/profile/KennethMLipp
<a href="http://scarredparabola.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_10.html">http://scarredparabola.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post_10.html</a><div><br/></div>
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